Looking to build a PC.

[Nate Archibald]

Hey everyone,

I'm looking to build my own PC, but I have no idea how to build one, I've heard that they're pretty easy, and you can build a pretty good one for a decent price. Can anyone lead me in the direction as to what I might need, how much it would be to build a pretty good gaming PC? I am a photographer and graphic designer as well, if that matters.

Any information would be great, thanks!

[TEX4S]

Well - what I can tell you is -

1.) DONT try to save money by getting the cheap stuff.

It ALWAYS ends up costing more in the long run.

2.) Listen to the people in here most of them are pretty knowledgeable.

3.) DONT buy a generic PSU

4.) Realize OverClocking is ONLY for bragging and benchmarking -- if you have to OC just to do something or get better frame rates in a game -- buy new hardware.

5.) Keep things in perspective - You dont NEED a core-i7

Have Fun - from now on - you'll only build your desktops and never buy another prebuilt again

Oh yeah -- buy from newegg.com

[shihchiun]

See sticky :)

[Orien]

Well - what I can tell you is -

4.) Realize OverClocking is ONLY for bragging and benchmarking -- if you have to OC just to do something or get better frame rates in a game -- buy new hardware.

While most people shouldn't need to OC, it isn't only for bragging and benchmarking. It's a great way of getting additional value out of your purchase.

[TokiToki]

While most people shouldn't need to OC, it isn't only for bragging and benchmarking. It's a great way of getting additional value out of your purchase.

I agree, especially with the crazy overclockability of the E2xxx and E5xxx CPU's. My E2180 is overclocked from 2GHz to 3.33GHz, and I get roughly the same performance as a CPU that costs twice as much at the time of my purchase. I could put that extra $85 I saved towards other components.

[TEX4S]

While most people shouldn't need to OC, it isn't only for bragging and benchmarking. It's a great way of getting additional value out of your purchase.

IMO If you feel the need to squeeze "add'l value" - you need to upgrade your HW

[DanManIt]

IMO If you feel the need to squeeze "add'l value" - you need to upgrade your HW

I disagree, I think it is unnecessary to overclock a system right away, but as the hardware starts to get dated it can be useful to squeeze some extra time out of it before you need to upgrade.

[a1ien]

you need to upgrade your HW

This is a pretty stupid sentiment. For example a Core i7 920 will OC to the speed of a core i7 975 that costs 4x as much. The i7 920 user does not need to upgrade to a 975.

Anyways, don't worry about overlcoking too much if its your first build, just know that if you pick a somewhat better motherboard, there will be the potential for 20-40% better performance.

[Nate Archibald]

Hey everyone! I've been meaning to get back ASAP, but I've been busy. I don't know much about this, like I said before, so I asked one of my friends and he listed that I needed these:

you'll need..

case

motherboard

RAM

Video Card

CPU

Power Supply

Disk drive

Sound card [optional, but helps if you are gaming]

So far, I've found these things. (Most of them I just checked out the top rated sections and kind of just picked and chose them.) -- PS, I am going to be doing a lot of photo editing, and graphic design, and gaming (hoping to have nice specs for FFXIV...) so keep that in mind with the ones that I've picked!! :)

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811156098

Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813131403

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820227365 (I was thinking about buying two of these, would that be 12gb of RAM?)

Video card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814130504

Sound card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16829271001

I have yet to pick up a drive yet, I was thinking about just gettingi a standard CD/DVD drive, and buying a Blu-ray drive that I saw on the site that was able to burn CDs and DVDs for around 130, thought that was a good deal.

Please take a look at some of the things that I have chosen and feel free to leave comments and suggestions and add things you may think I will need as well, this is all very new to me, so any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you again!

ps, im not interested in over clocking at all.

[Mannlich]

So far, you've got a top notch system there. What are you thinking for CPU? i7 920? The only thing I don't like so far is your choice of case. I think you could probably do much better for that price range, but that is just a personal opinion.

Here are list of CPUs you can choose from with that motherboard:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList....name=LGA%201366

Honestly, if you are going with the i7 920, get it from Microcenter. They are selling them for $200.

http://microcenter.com/single_product_resu...duct_id=0302727

[Nate Archibald]

Is that i7 920 a good CPU? Which case would you suggest? I only picked that one because it was a decent price, came with a power supply, and didn't look as lame as some as the other cases on their, not to mention it looks like it lights up green lol...

Also, anyone know of a good monitor? My current desktop is 1920 x 1200, so I would love something that has that resolution, I am also buying that Blu-ray reader, so a monitor that has sharp picture is a must

[StrikedOut]

A couple of things to look out for when you?re building your rig.

Get decent thermal paste and put it on carefully, good even spread without putting on too much.

What OS are you going to install? A 32Bit OS won?t see more than 3.5GB of RAM so use a 64Bit OS.

With that set up (very nice by the way) go for a solid state drive with a large SATA drive for storage.

Take your time with the wiring and try to keep it out of the main air flow of the case.

Get a decent PSU, they are worth their weight in gold.

Think about your air flow. You want a nice constant flow of cool air in with exhaust fans to take the hot air out, hot air is lighter than cold air.

Sure there are other things but cant think of them right now. Once you get it powered up for the first time you will never go back to buying a pre-built system again!:D; :D

[jnelsoninjax]

Unless you are going to do some serious graphic rendering the 295 is really over priced ($500) and the 260 is a better deal ($179.99) as for a case the NZXT Tempest is one heck of a case, and is only $99.99 and has a $20 mail-in-rebate, the nice thing about this case is you have all sorts of room, plus it has 6 fans (4 x 120 mm 2 x 140 mm) so it keeps things good and cool inside, plus it is a bottom mounted power supply so the weight is on the bottom not the top! Now for a motherboard this is a nice board and has a good CPU combo with it and will only run $200.98. For Memory I recommend OCZ Platinum this is a 4 GB kit and run $62.99, so you could double it if you wanted and have 8 GB (board max) the last thing you would need is a power supply The Cooler Master Silent Pro 700 RS is a good quality PSU and is only $109.99 Total build price $716.93 + shipping, so I would say that you would get a better system for less then you were looking at before!

[Mokky]

Unless you are an audiophile, you won't need the 89$ sound card. These days the mobo's onboard audio is really good (8 channel audio, good quality).

[Mannlich]

Unless you are going to do some serious graphic rendering the 295 is really over priced ($500) and the 260 is a better deal ($179.99) as for a case the NZXT Tempest is one heck of a case, and is only $99.99 and has a $20 mail-in-rebate, the nice thing about this case is you have all sorts of room, plus it has 6 fans (4 x 120 mm 2 x 140 mm) so it keeps things good and cool inside, plus it is a bottom mounted power supply so the weight is on the bottom not the top! Now for a motherboard this is a nice board and has a good CPU combo with it and will only run $200.98. For Memory I recommend OCZ Platinum this is a 4 GB kit and run $62.99, so you could double it if you wanted and have 8 GB (board max) the last thing you would need is a power supply The Cooler Master Silent Pro 700 RS is a good quality PSU and is only $109.99 Total build price $716.93 + shipping, so I would say that you would get a better system for less then you were looking at before!

The system you have put together here would be in a completely different performance category. The AMD Phenom 9750 doesn't hold a candle to the Core 2 Duo/Quad, let alone the i7 series of chips. I could see suggesting a system such as this if the OP gave the impression that he is under some hefty budget constraints. However, his level of comfort with the parts he has selected thus far would lead me to believe otherwise. Also, this system would leave him absolutely nowhere to go when he wanted to upgrade.

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardw...-review-19.html

To the OP, you don't want to use that Power Supply that comes with the case. There is no point in buying all of this high end hardware and then hooking it up to a generic PSU. I would look at something by Corsair, Thermaltake, Antec, etc. That power supply you have with the RaidMax case will not be able to handle your hardware. The GTX295 has some beefy power requirements that go along with it. I have mine hooked up to a Thermaltake Toughpower 850w PSU.

This is a really nice deal for a PSU:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817139006

Edited September 11, 2009 by B.Wolken

[+Anarkii Subscriber²]

My only question is, what is your price range?

Im guessing you are looking to spend around the $2500 US mark... can you confirm? I will post the best system for your price range in return :)

[Nate Archibald]

I don't really have a price range, I just want to be able to build a PC that meets my requirements, so feel free to post your system.

I read someone elses post on here, I have to weld stuff on??

[RPDL]

Tip #1:

Do not. Under any circumstances. Buy the Core i7 920 CPU.

The Core i5 750 performs just as well, costs less, doesn't need an expensive motherboard, has no chance of getting discontinued in a year like half of the Core i7s did and uses the LGA1156 Socket which will no doubt be more successful than the 1366.

Tip #2:

Don't buy a case.

Despite what the techies on these forums say, a case is just a box. You could save some money (and put it in something more important) by simply finding an old computer, or something cheap. Cases haven't really changed in the past 15 years. Often when I assemble PCs from spare parts I don't even have a case, and all is well.

Tip #3:

People still buy sound cards?

Here is why sound cards are dead:

-Creative's competitors had to license EAX, they had a hard time competing (especially with the SBLive)

-Creative can't make drivers

-Motherboard integrated audio is fine

-The only sound cards today that have noteworthy features are expensive

-Game developers stopped caring for EAX (although I thought it was pretty cool)

Tip #4:

Don't buy a video card until Radeon r800 are out

Seriously, you'll regret buying a 500$ GPU 2 weeks before ATi's r800 family comes out and 4 months before nVidia's GTX300.

That's pretty much it. But I must say, now is perhaps not the right time to be buying a PC. New lines of GPUs and CPUs are coming out. I bought a Pentium D and a Radeon X1600 a few days before Core 2 Duo came out and boy did I regret it. Don't make the same mistake: wait at the right time instead of spending thousands on harware that is more susceptible to becoming outdated.

[Mannlich]

Tip #1:

Do not. Under any circumstances. Buy the Core i7 920 CPU.

The Core i5 750 performs just as well, costs less, doesn't need an expensive motherboard, has no chance of getting discontinued in a year like half of the Core i7s did and uses the LGA1156 Socket which will no doubt be more successful than the 1366.

Socket 1366 will remain as the enthusiast/high end socket. At this point, based on current benchmarks, the core i5/i7 1156 chips seem to perform just as well as the i7 920 on x58 chipset. One thing that socket 1366 does have going for it is the release of the new nehalem based 6 core CPUs. Based on what I've read, this will be sold as the flagship chip for the x58 motherboards, replacing everything except for the i7 975. Obviously nobody has seen any type of benchmarks for what types of performance increases a 6 core chip would have, so building just because of that would not make sense.

I do disagree with your ideas about the case. I would not be comfortable shelling out this kind of money and putting all of that new hardware in a case that does not have adequate airflow. While it might not always be the case, the look of a system is something that is important to a lot of people.

[Paul Paliath]

Before I go on here, what exactly do you plan on doing on this machine anyways? This appears to be your first build; do you really need the power and performance offered by the Core i7? It seems that you've chosen some really high end components that primarily enthusiasts, gamers, media professionals, etc. would pick as they need such power, but, if you don't need all of this, are you really willing to cough up the cash? As mentioned by other posters, perhaps a Core i5 may be ideal for you if you don't need all too much but still want something fairly recent and powerful. Also, you don't have to do any welding unless there's something special that you have to do.

Anywho, what do you think about this configuration that I quickly threw together?

Case: Cooler Master Storm Scout (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119196) - $89.99

Power Supply: CORSAIR CMPSU-750HX 750 watt (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139010) - $169.99

CPU: Intel Core i5 750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz CPU (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115215&cm_re=core_i5-_-19-115-215-_-Product) - $209.99

Motherboard: EVGA P55 LE 123-LF-E653-KR (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188054) - $169.99

RAM: OCZ Obsidian 6GB RAM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227477) - $119.99

Graphics: EVGA GTX 260 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130434&cm_re=evga_gtx_260-_-14-130-434-_-Product) - $194.99

Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284&cm_re=1tb_hard_drive-_-22-136-284-_-Product) - $94.99

DVD Drive: SAMSUNG Black (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151188) - $31.99

Total: $1081.92 + Shipping

The above configuration should be perfectly fine for you unless you do anything special on your system. It's up to date with Intel's Core i5, you have a good mobo/GPU both from a great brand (EVGA), and you ultimately will have a powerful Core i5 quad core system. Again, it really depends on what you do with your system; if you need more power than a system along the lines of what you configured before may be optimal. Although, it's likely that you may even need less.

[i_was_here]

Although Corsair's HX are good PSUs, I think you would be fine with the CMPSU-650TX:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817139005

BTW Evga's 6+1 phase PWM design seems small compared to competitors like ASUS and Gigabyte. Don't know if its important.

[TEX4S]

....

To the OP, you don't want to use that Power Supply that comes with the case. There is no point in buying all of this high end hardware and then hooking it up to a generic PSU. I would look at something by Corsair, Thermaltake, Antec, etc. That power supply you have with the RaidMax case will not be able to handle your hardware. The GTX295 has some beefy power requirements that go along with it. I have mine hooked up to a Thermaltake Toughpower 850w PSU.

This is a really nice deal for a PSU:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817139006

Good post, and that is a good deal for a PSU like that

Every once in a while you can catch Micro Center doing the PC Power & Cooling 750W Silencer for $149 -- and they sell the Corei7 920 @ $200 every day -- cant beat that

When I did my build a few weeks ago, I got most of the parts @ Fry's, & had them match micro center's prices - ;)

[Mannlich]

Motherboard: EVGA P55 LE 123-LF-E653-KR (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188054) - $169.99

RAM: OCZ Obsidian 6GB RAM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227477) - $119.99

That would not make sense. You have selected a memory kit that is designed for tripple channel controllers paired with a board that is only capable of running memory in dual channel configurations. If he is to go with a P55 motherboard, he is better off buying memory in dual channel configurations.

[RPDL]

I do disagree with your ideas about the case. I would not be comfortable shelling out this kind of money and putting all of that new hardware in a case that does not have adequate airflow. While it might not always be the case, the look of a system is something that is important to a lot of people.

I knew the idea of airflow would come up. To me airflow is a desperate selling point for case designers who struggle to make a difference. I have yet to see a convincing benchmark or research that shows that airflow is different from case to case or actually makes a difference (unless it has an unusual design or form factor). Like I said in my previous posts, I have run computers from modern cases, old cases, cases with no panels and no case, and I have never seen a significant temperature difference. The basic concept of airflow never really changes. Air comes in from the front, air goes out in the back. Older and cheaper cases work perfectly as long as they stick to this concept and have enough room.

Graphics: EVGA GTX 260 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130434&cm_re=evga_gtx_260-_-14-130-434-_-Product) - $194.99

Paul, I mostly agree with your suggestions, but I'm not sure why you chose that particular video card. While I agree eVga is a good brand, I don't think buying a 195USD GTX 260 is worth it since the Radeon 4890 and the GTX 275 cost just as much and offer a clear performance advantage.

[ThehAWKs]

the Build that @~Pual has put together is really good i would change the Ram from triple channel OCZ Obsidian 6GB ram to this dual channel kit G.SKILL Ripjaws Series (2x2GB) 4GB and get 8GB Timings are at 7-7-7-24 and DDR3 1600 Very good ram.

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) <---- ClickMe